Turkish air raids kill at least eight young native Iraqi tourists

TURKISH artillery strikes killed at least eight tourists, including a small child, and wounded over 20 people in northern Iraq, officials said.

At least four shells struck the resort area of Barakh in the Kurdish-run Zakho district, said Mushir Mohammed, the district mayor. All the casualties were Iraqi citizens.

The incident will test Iraq and Turkey’s relationship. The two countries share deep economic ties but do not see eye-to-eye on security issues related to Kurdish insurgents operating in Iraq, oil trading with the Kurdish region and water-sharing.

The Iraqi Kurdish region’s Health Ministry said all the dead were “young people and children”, including a oneyear old, and that 26 people had been taken to hospital with injuries.